Flux-based method of characteristics for contaminant transport in flowing groundwater

A numerical method for treating advection-dominated contaminant transport in flowing groundwater is described. This method combines advantages of numerical discretizations by finite volume methods (like local mass conservation and the positivity of solutions) and by methods of characteristics (like larger time steps and reduced artificial numerical dispersion). For one-dimensional problems the method can produce equivalent algebraic systems as the finite volume Eulerian-Lagrangian localized adjoint method [13] and the flux-based modified method of characteristics [23] (and some other methods). An extension of the "flux-based methods of characteristics" for complex transport problems on multidimensional unstructured computational grids is the main contribution of this paper. Numerical results are included for a well established test example using a flux-based method of characteristics with aligned finite volumes.     

A dynamic data-driven application simulation framework for contaminant transport problems

We describe, devise, and augment dynamic data-driven application simulations (DDDAS). DDDAS offers interesting computational and mathematically unsolved problems, such as, how do you analyze, compute, and predict the solution of a generalized PDE when you do not know either where or what the boundary conditions are at any given moment in the simulation in advance? A summary of DDDAS features and why this is a intellectually stimulating new field are included in the paper.We apply the DDDAS methodology to some examples from a contaminant transport problem. We demonstrate that the multiscale interpolation and backward in time error monitoring are useful to long running simulations.     

Vectorized simulation of groundwater flow and streamline transport

We describe a modeling suite of Matlab functions for simulating nonpoint source (NPS) pollution in groundwater aquifers. The NPS model simulates groundwater flow and contaminant transport from a large array (order of 10² – 10⁷) of spatially distributed sources with time-varying pollution strength to a similarly large array of spatially distributed production wells (receptors) using the streamline transport approach. The code solves three equations: steady-state groundwater flow, particle tracking, and transient advection dispersion contaminant transport. The code performs convolution integration in its predictive step. Written in highly efficient vectorized form to avoid time consuming “for/while” loops, the code is also suitable for other groundwater flow and transport problems. The code is verified against analytical solutions and finite element software Comsol. An application illustrates 200 years of transient nitrate transport in the 2000 km² Tule River aquifer sub-basin of the Central Valley, California, with 9000 individual nitrate sources and 1920 wells.     

Coupling geological and numerical models to simulate groundwater flow and contaminant transport in fractured media

A new modeling approach is presented to improve numerical simulations of groundwater flow and contaminant transport in fractured geological media. The approach couples geological and numerical models through an intermediate mesh generation phase. As a first step, a platform for 3D geological modeling is used to represent fractures as 2D surfaces with arbitrary shape and orientation in 3D space. The advantage of the geological modeling platform is that 2D triangulated fracture surfaces are modeled and visualized before building a 3D mesh. The triangulated fractures are then transferred to the mesh generation software that discretizes the 3D simulation domain with tetrahedral elements. The 2D triangular fracture elements do not cut through the 3D tetrahedral elements, but they rather form interfaces with them. The tetrahedral mesh is then used for 3D groundwater flow and contaminant transport simulations in discretely fractured porous media. The resulting mesh for the 2D fractures and 3D rock matrix is checked to ensure that there are no negative transmissibilities in the discretized flow and transport equation, to avoid unrealistic results. To test the validity of the approach, flow and transport simulations for a tetrahedral mesh are compared to simulations using a block-based mesh and with results of an analytical solution. The fluid conductance matrix for the tetrahedral mesh is also analyzed and compared with known matrix values.     

Forming telecommunications software specifications from a service-driven model using enhanced software tools

Increasing diversity and sophistication among telecommunications customers has led to pressure on the telecommunications industry to give customer groups the capability to customize aspects of offered telecommunications services for their own particular needs. To offer such user-customizable services correctly, quickly, and cheaply, the telecommunications industry needs adequate techniques for transforming user requirements into software specifications and for realizing these software specifications with application code. In today's environment, several well-known software development life cycle processes exist for realizing software specifications; however, analogous techniques for transforming user requirements into explicit software specifications do not. This paper proposes a technique for transforming user requirements and then demonstrates its use on a sample telecommunications application. The technique creates a simulation environment that lets simulation users describe their application requirements and then determine the appropriate software specifications needed. The technique builds on aspects of a service-driven specification model and simulation software tools published earlier. Because the simulation environment derives from user requirements and produces software specifications, the proposed technique could represent the first phase of a service-driven software development life cycle process, eventually evolving from the nonservice-driven “requirements analysis” phase commonly used in practice today.     

多相流搅拌器流场数值模拟软件

为对搅拌器多相流体间的最终乳化结果进行模拟,结合FLUENT与ANSYS软件,以VB为前台程序开发搅拌器流场数值模拟软件.用VB开发用户交互界面,通过后台调用ANSYS的APDL完成前处理模块,实现搅拌器叶片、筒体的建模,网格划分和组元创建;通过后台调用FLUENT运行日志文件实现流体流场仿真运算与结果后处理,并以图形...     

Comparing software prediction techniques using simulation

The need for accurate software prediction systems increases as software becomes much larger and more complex. We believe that the underlying characteristics: size, number of features, type of distribution, etc., of the data set influence the choice of the prediction system to be used. For this reason, we would like to control the characteristics of such data sets in order to systematically explore the relationship between accuracy, choice of prediction system, and data set characteristic. It would also be useful to have a large validation data set. Our solution is to simulate data allowing both control and the possibility of large (1000) validation cases. The authors compare four prediction techniques: regression, rule induction, nearest neighbor (a form of case-based reasoning), and neural nets. The results suggest that there are significant differences depending upon the characteristics of the data set. Consequently, researchers should consider prediction context when evaluating competing prediction systems. We observed that the more "messy" the data and the more complex the relationship with the dependent variable, the more variability in the results. In the more complex cases, we observed significantly different results depending upon the particular training set that has been sampled from the underlying data set. However, our most important result is that it is more fruitful to ask which is the best prediction system in a particular context rather than which is the "best" prediction system     

Bad and good news about using software assurance tools

Software assurance tools – tools that scan the source or binary code of a program to find weaknesses – are the first line of defense in assessing the security of a software project. Even though there are a plethora of such tools available, with multiple tools for almost every programming language, adoption of these tools is spotty at best. And even though different tools have distinct abilities to find different kinds of weaknesses, the use of multiple tools is even less common. And when the tools are used (or attempted to be used), they are often used in ways that reduce their effectiveness. We present a step‐by‐step discussion of how to use a software assurance tool, describing the challenges that can occur in this process. We also present quantitative evidence about the effects that can occur when assurance tools are applied in a simplistic or naive way. We base this presentation on our direct experiences with using a wide variety of assurance tools. We then present the US Department of Homeland Security funded Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP), an open facility where users can upload their software to have it automatically and continually assessed by a variety of tools. The goal of the SWAMP is to simplify the task of the programmer in using assurance tools, thereby removing many of the obstacles to their adoption. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Software: Practice and Experience Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of contaminant biodegradation by higher order methods and adaptive time stepping

In this work we present and analyze a reliable and robust approximation scheme for biochemically reacting transport in the subsurface following Monod type kinetics. Water flow is modeled by the Richards equation. The proposed scheme is based on higher order finite element methods for the spatial discretization and the two step backward differentiation formula for the temporal one. The resulting nonlinear algebraic systems of equations are solved by a damped version of Newtons method. For the linear problems of the Newton iteration Krylov space methods are used. In computational experiments conducted for realistic subsurface (groundwater) contamination scenarios we show that the higher order approximation scheme significantly reduces the amount of inherent numerical diffusion compared to lower order ones. Thereby an artificial transverse mixing of the species leading to a strong overestimation of the biodegradation process is avoided. Finally, we present a robust adaptive time stepping technique for the coupled flow and transport problem which allows efficient long-term predictions of biodegradation processes.     

Coupling spatially distributed river and groundwater transport models to investigate contaminant dynamics at river corridor scales

Rivers and aquifers are mutually dependent components of the hydrological cycle, typically characterised by temporal dynamics that are a few orders of magnitude apart. This characteristic is often advocated to justify the use of independent single-system models to maximise the outcome for the available computational resources. However, the rapid increase in computational power presently provides means to explore new and more complex modelling schemes, which better reflect the complex physical reality. We present a new modelling framework, FLUXOS, developed from the full coupling of modified versions of state-of-the-art standalone river and groundwater flow and transport models. The model is validated against analytical solutions and applied to real world scenarios in the complex urban corridor of the Ciliwung River in Jakarta to show its flexibility for practical applications and its capabilities as an exploratory tool for realistic investigation of contamination sources and pathways determining non-linear behaviours of river-aquifer interactions.     

基于Cart3D的全机数值模拟及并行计算

利用CFD商用软件Cart3D对亚声速飞行飞机的三维绕流流场进行了数值模拟以及并行计算,得到了飞机附近的流场,实现了此软件在高性能并行计算机上的并行;通过对比不同商用软件的计算结果,验证了用Cart3D软件进行数值模拟的有效性,为大规模科学工程计算提供了技术参照。     

Application of MATLAB and Python optimizers to two case studies involving groundwater flow and contaminant transport modeling

One approach for utilizing geoscience models for management or policy analysis is via a simulation-based optimization framework—where an underlying model is linked with an optimization search algorithm. In this regard, MATLAB and Python are high-level programming languages that implement numerous optimization routines, including gradient-based, heuristic, and direct-search optimizers. The ever-expanding number of available algorithms makes it challenging for practitioners to identify optimizers that deliver good performance when applied to problems of interest. Thus, the primary contribution of this paper is to present a series of numerical experiments that investigated the performance of various MATLAB and Python optimizers. The experiments considered two simulation-based optimization case studies involving groundwater flow and contaminant transport. One case study examined the design of a pump-and-treat system for groundwater remediation, while the other considered least-squares calibration of a model of strontium (Sr) transport. Using these case studies, the performance of 12 different MATLAB and Python optimizers was compared. Overall, the Hooke-Jeeves direct search algorithm yielded the best performance in terms of identifying least-cost and best-fit solutions to the design and calibration problems, respectively. The IFFCO (implicit filtering for constrained optimization) direct search algorithm and the dynamically dimensioned search (DDS) heuristic algorithm also consistently yielded good performance and were up to 80% more efficient than Hooke-Jeeves when applied to the pump-and-treat problem. These results provide empirical evidence that, relative to gradient- and population-based alternatives, direct search algorithms and heuristic variants, such as DDS, are good choices for application to simulation-based optimization problems involving groundwater management.     

A coupled flow and transport model for simulation of groundwater reservoirs

As in many cases the quality of water, rather than the available amount restricts water use, a management of groundwater reservoirs has to include the investigation of the transport of dissolved solids in many cases. A special problem of coastal aquifers is a density dependent groundwater flow, caused by different saltwater concentration. For the efficient simulation of aquifer reaction a model is described, which permits the simultaneous computation of groundwater flow and mass transport.     

Numerical simulation of multiple 3D fracture propagation using arbitrary meshes

This paper describes a mesh-independent finite element based method for propagating fractures in three dimensions. The iterative algorithm automatically grows fractures in a 3D brittle medium represented by an isotropic linear elastic matrix. Growth is controlled by an input failure and propagation criterion. The geometry and mesh are stored separately, and mesh refinement is topologically guided. Propagation results in the modification of crack geometry, as opposed to changes in the mesh, as the arbitrary tetrahedral mesh adapts to the evolving geometry. Stress intensity factors are computed using the volumetric J Integral on a virtual piecewise cylinder. Modal stress intensity factors are computed using the decomposition method. Mesh and cylinder size effects are studied, as is computational efficiency. A through-going crack embedded in a thick slab, and a horizontal and inclined penny-shape crack, are used to validate the accuracy of the method. The predicted stress intensity factors are in good agreement with analytical solutions. For six integration points per tip segment, integration local to single tips, and a cylinder radius that adapts to the local geometric conditions, results agree with analytical solutions with less than 5% deviation from experimental results.     

A comprehensive modeling environment for the simulation of groundwater flow and transport

A comprehensive graphical modeling environment has been developed to address the needs of the computer simulation of groundwater flow and transport. The Department of Defense Groundwater Modeling Systems (GMS), developed at the Engineering Computer Graphics Laboratory at Brigham Young University, is part of a multi-year project funded through the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency. GMS is a graphically based software tool providing facility through all aspects of the groundwater flow and transport modeling process. Facilities include geometric modeling of hydrostratigraphy, two- and three-dimensional mesh generation, graphically based model input for specific flow and transport codes, interpolation and geostatistics as well as complete three-dimensional scientific visualization.     

Holistic methodology using computer simulation for optimisation of machine tools

Virtual machine concepts supporting optimisation of machine tools have been developed in earlier work. The virtual machine concept is a tool that can describe the behaviour of a machine tool while considering the interaction between mechanics of the machines and the control system. Considerable amount of work has been done proving the concept and showing the potential of such a design tool in different contexts. Several studies have shown the potential of using the virtual machine concept, although, no work has been found that is exploring the potential of a full optimisation study.     

Hard- and software simulation tools of emergency control system of turbine frequency and power regulators

The paper discusses the modeling of emergency control system of turbine frequency and power regulators using a hybrid real time simulator of electric power system. It presents the results of pilot simulation of frequency and power regulators ensuring dynamic and static stability in an electric power system.     

Structure and software tools of AIDA

AIDA consists of a set of software tools to allow for fast development and easy-to-maintain Medical Information Systems. AIDA supports all aspects of such a system both during development and operation. It contains tools to build and maintain forms for interactive data entry and on-line input validation, a database management system including a data dictionary and a set of run-time routines for database access, and routines for querying the database and output formatting. Unlike an application generator, the user of AIDA may select parts of the tools to fulfill his needs and program other subsystems not developed with AIDA. The AIDA software uses as host language the ANSI-standard programming language MUMPS, an interpreted language embedded in an integrated database and programming environment. This greatly facilitates the portability of AIDA applications. The database facilities supported by AIDA are based on a relational data model. This data model is built on top of the MUMPS database, the so-called global structure. This relational model overcomes the restrictions of the global structure regarding string length. The global structure is especially powerful for sorting purposes. Using MUMPS as a host language allows the user an easy interface between user-defined data validation checks or other user-defined code and the AIDA tools. AIDA has been designed primarily for prototyping and for the construction of Medical Information Systems in a research environment which requires a flexible approach. The prototyping facility of AIDA operates terminal independent and is even to a great extent multi-lingual. Most of these features are table-driven; this allows on-line changes in the use of terminal type and language, but also causes overhead. AIDA has a set of optimizing tools by which it is possible to build a faster, but (of course) less flexible code from these table definitions. By separating the AIDA software in a source and a run-time version, one is able to write implementation-specific code which can be selected and loaded by a special source loader, being part of the AIDA software. This feature is also accessible for maintaining software on different sites and on different installations.     

移动机器人3D仿真软件的设计与实现

在机器人技术研究中,为了提高机器人控制算法的开发效率,提出移动机器人三维仿真软件的设计方案并加以实现。该软件采用ODE物理引擎生成动力学世界和实现碰撞检测,提高了仿真速度和精确度,同时采用OpenGL绘制三维图形,改善了图形显示效果。仿真实例证明,该软件具有一定的实用价值。